The S&P 500 index sets new records, albeit without much enthusiasm. Down today the Nasdaq, after jumping more than 1 percentage point on the eve.
However, the technological list is preparing to end the week doing better than the other equity indices, with an increase of about 2.5%. The Dow Jones gained + 1.6% this week, while the S&P 500 was up nearly + 1.9% from Monday’s session.
In today’s session, a few minutes after the session started, the Dow Jones climbed 0.29% to 33,600 points, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.10% to 4,101 points. The Nasdaq falls 0.34% to 13,781 points.
Highlighted are the value stocks of some giants destined to benefit from the reopening of economies and the end of lockdowns: good General Electric, Carnival Corp and JPMorgan.
After yesterday’s rises, hi-tech stocks like Apple and Netflix are turning around.
Watch out for the note from Chris Hussey of Goldman Sachs, who pointed out how the solidity that Big Tech showed in this week of trading dampens the assumption that hi-tech stocks are destined to suffer, due to a rotation. investments from growth stocks (of which they are part) to cyclical stocks.
Referring to FAAMG shares (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Google), it can be seen that the group has risen by 11% since the beginning of the year, compared to + 9% in the S&P 500.
That said, the fear of inflation re-ignited in the markets by the publication of the producer price index is once again penalizing growth stocks.
The US Department of Labor announced that the figure jumped 1% in March, after rising 0.5% in February. Year-on-year, the increase was + 4.2%, the strongest year-over-year jump in nine and a half years, or since September 2011. In February, the index had risen year-on-year by 2 , 8%. Economists interviewed by Reuters had predicted a PPI increase of 0.5% month-on-month and 3.8% year-on-year.
The surprise for the surge in the indicator had an effect on Treasury rates, with the ten-year rates rising back to around 1.67%, a value still far from the 1.77% tested days ago, an additional record one year.
The effect of the PPI also on forex is inevitable, with the dollar strengthening against the main currencies, rising 0.45% against the yen to JPY 109.81 and also accelerating on the euro, with the EUR-USD ratio falling 0.29% to $ 1.1881. On the other hand, the dollar-pound ratio is plastered at $ 1.3733.
Focus on the words of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell who, speaking yesterday at an event presented by the International Monetary Fund, said that “the recovery (of the global economy) remains unbalanced and incomplete”, adding that this imbalance represents “a very problem serious”.
Speaking of the specific case of the United States, Powell said that “there are factors that will allow the nation to reopen the economy soon and completely”. That said, the Fed number one warned, “it is important to remember that we will not go back to the same type of economy. This will be a different economy ”.
For example, Powell explained, many Americans who are still jobless will struggle to find a job, as some industries will be smaller than in the run-up to the Covid-19 pandemic. In some cases, said the helmsman of the American central bank, executives will focus more on the use of technology than on the workforce, where possible.
Tensions continue between the US and China after the US Department of Commerce added seven Chinese companies to its blacklist, citing security reasons.
Le società sono Tianjin Phytium Information Technology, Shanghai High-Performance Integrated Circuit Design Center, Sunway Microelectronics, the National Supercomputing Center Jinan, the National Supercomputing Center Shenzhen, the National Supercomputing Center Wuxi e the National Supercomputing Center Zhengzhou.